During all the driving around Oz I’ve been listening to the radio a lot and learnt a few things. Their interest rates have been going up steadily over the last couple of years and the base rate is now around 7.5% – that means most banks’ standard variable rates are above 9%! Ouch! And house prices have shot up so fast that many first time buyers now can’t get onto the property ladder – sound familiar?

It also sounds like most of the state hospitals are overwhelmed and there aren’t enough doctors to go around. My cousin was saying that she used to be able to get an appointment on the same day but now she normally has to wait a couple of days to get an appointment.

It sounds like Australia is suffering from some very familiar problems!

As for the cost of living, well petrol is quite a bit cheaper (about 65p a litre) but pretty much everything else isn’t really any cheaper. Food and drink is about the same price.

UPDATE: (21st March) My mate Vince got his prescription today and it cost him the equivent 15 UK pounds! That’s more than twice the cost of a prescription in the UK.